Pisces

Louise’s tarotscope: You’ll kick off the year in an adventurous state of mind, and I want to talk about manifesting—what it is and how to do it, to get these things we really want. Manifesting is a spiritual practice, but it’s a practice for all of us. You maybe sometimes find it easy to get obsessed about things, causing you a bit of anxiety, almost as though if we think about something enough, it will happen. That’s a bit like putting a jar over a butterfly and wondering why it’s not going anywhere. We want this thing but we stop it from moving, because we’re too busy holding it. Manifesting is a three step process: intention, action, and letting go. Allowing things to breathe and move in their own time is recognizing that letting go is like taking the jar off the butterfly and letting it do its thing. If you want to get into that magic manifesting kind of thing, all you have to do is have an idea of the stuff you want, and make it an expansive idea that you call into your life. Then, take action to make it so. In the “fun and friendship” area of life, perhaps you want to meet new people who are into the same things you are, that’s your intention. Then, to meet those people, you probably need to do more of the stuff that you’re into. Take yourself to the club or the class or the online forum or your favorite cafe—that’s your action. Then surrender. Let go and try not to obsess about the outcome. It’s not about looking at your watch, like, “Hello, friends, where are you, tick-tock!” It’s getting on with your day, but now in a space where things can breathe around you. We feel our most magical when we’re allowing ourselves to breathe, and we know that everything grows from breathing. All those things you’re real wanting right now—are you allowing them to breathe? If we plant a seed at a garden, we don’t stare at it until it flowers. We just water it and then we go off and leave it there. It doesn’t turn into a flower quicker if we stand there, willing it to grow. Are you hovering over something, obsessively trying to force it? Nothing in life has to be forced into being. Sometimes you don’t want to let it go, because you worry, Where is it going to go? Is it going to run off down that hill without me? I want you to realize that when you let something go, it’s allowing you and it to breathe.

January is a good time for meeting new friends. Maybe you’ve got a feeling that you’d like to be around different people. This month, think of one area where you’ve stopped doing as much as you want to, and make that your “January thing”—something that is part of your your natural lit-up self. The great thing about making new friends is that they’re usually not the people we expect. The kind of energy of the people you’re going to enjoy this month are people who have a good ability to bring your watery, fluid imagination down to earth. It’ll be a friendship that you enjoy the most because you both bring different things to it.

Dylan’s advice: This month—in spite of, or perhaps because of the extra adventurous, go-getter focus—will be all about calling new energy into your life, but at its own pace. You’re raring to go and ready for happenings, but you still have to remember to let the seeds you plant grow. This month, in honor of this process, ordain a LITERAL PLANT as the living embodiment of your most exciting, forward-moving intentions. Amaryllis are gorgeous blooming bulbs that you can often buy at a grocery or hardware store around this time of year. You can also score a tiny yet hearty succulent or air plant, many of which run $2 to $10, depending on where you live. You don’t necessarily have to find a plant that blooms to ~fully actualize~ this probably-too-obvious but still fun metaphor. Name your new plant friend after an intention you are setting for 2016. If you’re saving up for a trip with school to Paris, name it Francoise. If you’re aiming to ace a BAR exam for you aspiring lawyers, call it Barry. If you’re switching your major into poli-sci because you want to be president when you grow up, adopt your new cactus friend, Obama! Your job this year is to be the steady and true guardian of your dreams, and your little plant, providing it with all the water, sun, and care it needs, while letting it develop at its own destined pace. ♦